When first forming the Chase schedule, with Talladega and Martinsville included on the 10-race playoff, NASCAR had two tracks where drivers can run well but then have a problem—not of their own doing—on the final lap and finish 35th because so many drivers are on the lead lap.

A decade ago, a road course would have been a third event where a last-lap mistake from another driver could turn devastating for a championship contender.

It is not as much a case now. Sure, drivers do have trouble on the final lap—look at Watkins Glen last year—but it’s not as common. With double-file restarts and wave-arounds as well as increased durability of the cars, having a potentially good day ruined on the final lap has become more accepted.

With so many more good road-course drivers creating a more even playing field, no driver appears at too much of a disadvantage. It is a real road race instead of stock-car guys fumbling their way through left and right turns. Their road-racing talents are now Chase worthy.

The hardest part of putting a road course in the Chase is where would this road-course race take place.

The best place for one might be at the new Circuit of the Americas track in Austin, Texas, where Formula One already races. NASCAR’s Grand-Am Rolex Series also races there.

NASCAR could add a race to the schedule but that’s unlikely. NASCAR typically doesn’t move races unless the owners of a track request realignment.

Speedway Motorsports likely wouldn’t want it because it already owns Texas Motor Speedway, which is 225 miles away. Maybe one day International Speedway Corp. will buy or become a partner in the Austin track, which then would make it easy to move a race there.

Any purchase of the Austin track is a likely long-term solution to putting a road course in the Chase.

Kansas and Daytona have road courses, but for NASCAR to run a race on a road course, it should be one designed more for road racing than oval racing. The ones designed for road racing have more and better passing zones.

Maybe ISC gets back into business with Montreal—it promoted the Nationwide races for three years—and runs a Cup race there, but hard feelings remain after the current promoter took a Cup-or-nothing approach, resulting in no Montreal race in 2013.

The easiest solution to put a road-course race in the Chase: move Sonoma or Watkins Glen to the Chase. But that’s not easy. It would not enhance the entire season because it keeps just two road races on the schedule.

From a weather standpoint, Sonoma is the best option but still not great. The idea of kicking off the Chase there if NASCAR doesn’t see any buzz from starting it in Chicago is tempting.

That option also has its downsides. NASCAR would go head-to-head with the NFL on a fall weekend and the possibility of postseason baseball in the San Francisco area also exists.

Watkins Glen? It would be a little cold for the people who camp—the facility relies heavily on camping for its Sprint Cup race—as the low temperature that time of year hovers in the 40s in September and drops to the 30s in October. Also, the Chase already goes to New Hampshire and Dover and adding a third Northeast site would be debatable.

For the most part, the Sonoma and Watkins Glen events do as well as they can. There’s little reason from a promoter’s standpoint to mess with them.

But from a NASCAR standpoint, what was once a persuasive argument against a road-course race in the Chase no longer remains all that convincing. It’s about time that a road-course race belongs in the Chase. The road-course races are now exciting, even somewhat exciting when a driver is leading by several seconds going into the final turns as was the case Sunday.

There is intrigue and strategy. The ringers likely wouldn’t play much of a factor except for buying the rides that sometimes would be start-and-parks.

The idea of a road-course race actually in the Chase sounds much better than it did a decade ago, and it’s about time for NASCAR to start looking for a way to make it happen.